


Scarlet thread and silver needles

by Ravensmores



Series: Tumblr Prompts [1]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Cuddling & Snuggling, Implied Sexual Content, Light Angst, M/M, Mild Smut, Naked Cuddling, Red String of Fate, Soulmates, This was only supposed to be short buuuuut it kinda got away from me, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 19:26:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15250374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravensmores/pseuds/Ravensmores
Summary: During fuzzy, sleep-warm nights, his mother would whisper him stories about all the famous soulmates throughout history while she traced her finger around his wrist, mimicking the soft grip of the red string.“Just think Vitya, there could be someone out there made just for you. You just have to follow the thread to find them.”And that’s exactly what he planned to do.





	Scarlet thread and silver needles

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prequel to my previous work ['Tie me down to your heart'.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15072317) Feel free to read it first, but it's not essential to understand the story.

Victor spent his life chasing the red string of fate.

The idea that two souls were so perfect for each other that destiny itself had tied them together was something that had his own stomach tying in knots whenever he thought about it.

Whether soulmates were luck, science or some kind of magic wasn’t important to Victor. All that mattered was that when he found them, they’d both see the string that tied them together clear as day and run into eachother’s arms.

At least… that was the plan.

From the minute he first learned about soulmates as a child, he spent every waking hour not on the ice researching everything he could about the thread: what it looked like, what it felt like, how you knew you had a soulmate… it was  _exhilarating._

During fuzzy, sleep-warm nights, his mother would whisper him stories about all the famous soulmates throughout history while she traced her finger around his wrist, mimicking the soft grip of the red string.  

_“Just think Vitya, there could be someone out there made just for you. You just have to follow the thread to find them.”_

And that’s exactly what he planned to do.

It was a known fact that soulmates were rare. Really rare. Rare to the point that a lot of the world had collectively decided they were just a fairy tale: something for children and romance authors to dream about... but Victor didn’t care.

He didn’t care that it was probably just a story murmured under the blanket of night to help him sleep: every birthday candle, every fallen eyelash, every dandelion blown to the wind throughout his childhood held the same wish.

_Let me find my soulmate._

The world that believed knew soulmates were special people, but even as a child Victor also knew that he was special- that people were constantly praising him for being talented, a prodigy, that he was always destined for greatness.

Looking at his warmed reflection in his first junior gold medal Victor was certain. If anyone was going to have a soulmate, it was going to be him.

 

And so his search began.

 

—-

 

Whether it was absentmindedly winding a stray shirt thread around his fingers or whipping his head at every flash of red that drifted through his vision, the idea of finding his soulmate was constantly at the back of his mind.

Skating might have consumed most of his life, but that didn’t stop him taking advantage of every second: scoring phantom threads into the ice with each performance, calling out with every movement of his body to the person on the other end of that string he so desperately wanted to see.

It brought him gold after gold, cheque after cheque, but nothing even remotely close to what he really wanted.

He tried skating routines about love, passion, pleasure, but as he struck the final pose of every dance, using the last of his energy to beg the universe to let him have this, he still remained untethered.

Still, that wasn’t going to stop him.

Even as the years scraped on, he never hid the fact he believed, gleefully mentioning it anytime someone asked him.

He deliberately ignored the whispered sneers that often followed.

_“You think he would have seen it by now.”_

_“Seriously? People still believe that?”_

_“When was the last time you even heard about anyone being soulmates?”_

Every season the world got louder, but he still didn’t care.

Not when each of his short-lived relationships exploded into fiery spits of anger and frustration at his beliefs.

Not when the number of reported soulmates started to dwindle.

Not even when everyone close to him told him to grow up, that it had been years and he hadn’t even seen a single trace of a red thread.

At least… he thought he didn’t care.

As the buzzing light of the hotel bathroom gleams harshly off his fifth Grand Prix Final gold, he can feel the thought he’d been so desperately pushing down for years now scratching heavy and bitter in the back of his mind.

_Do I even have one?_

It’s not that he doesn’t believe people can have happy relationships while not being soulmates and it wasn’t the realisation that he may have wasted almost thirty years chasing something unattainable that makes it feel like his victory tonight was tainted.

He sighs, haphazardly throwing the medal into his suitcase and pulling his formal jacket from the closet.

_He just wants someone he knows he can hold onto._

_\---_

 

And then there’s Yuuri

 

_“Be my coach Victoooor.”_

That’s when he swears he first sees it. The tiniest ghost of a red thread tied around the pinky of the hand resting dangerously close to the currently very drunk Japanese skater’s ass.

He blinks rapidly, dazed at the sudden onslaught of thoughts, but when he looks back it’s gone. Vanished as quickly as it appeared.

Before he even has a moment to question what just happened, Yuuri’s already staggered away, tugging on the sleeve of an extremely irate looking Yuri Plisetsky and slurring something in broken English about a dance-off.

Watching the disgruntled teenager throw off his jacket to accept the challenge while the other man drops into a perfect split, he can’t stop the stupidly large grin that splits across his face as he runs over to join them.

 

Later that night he slowly rubs the spot where he swears he’d seen the thread wrapped around his finger.

Was his soulmate there? In that room? He swore he almost felt it being tied the moment Yuuri had flung himself into his arms.

Wait.

_Could that mean…?_

No. He lets the rational thought weigh out.

He’s desperately wanted to find his soulmate for so many years. He’d been tipsy on the wine and rather enjoying the way that other man’s body had felt pressed and swaying against his own.

He huffs and rolls onto his side, staring out at the muted Russian moonlight just visible through the small gap in the hotel room curtains.

He’s spent so long calling out to his soulmate through every one of his routines, hoping they’d see how much he wanted to find them just through the glide of his body. He knows he doesn’t have much time left on the ice, and he’d already spent months wrestling with both Yakov and his own mind about what he should do next.

He’s given his youth, his soul, his heart to the ice and it hasn’t gotten him any closer to a soulmate... or any happiness in a long time really.

Victor flips onto his back, running his hand down his face, desperately trying to stop himself drowning in that particular train of thought again.

Tonight had been the most really fun he’d had in so so long- and that had been when he might have first seen it.

He gently unclenches his fingers from the fists he didn’t realise he’d been making around the duvet and quietly makes his vow.

_If it calls out to me again, I’ll follow it with all my heart._

\----

 

It’s when he’s on the sofa in his apartment, piled underneath Makkachin that he sees it again.

Watching Yuuri skate his routine on the small glow of his phone, he can’t stop a persistent thought swirling in his mind.

_If he’s this talented, why wasn’t he standing on the podium next to me?_

As Yuuri strikes his final pose, sweaty and stunning, a much louder one makes itself known.

_If he can skate like this, why did it take me until the banquet for me to notice him?_

Then he feels it.

Looking down at the hand resting on top of Makkachin’s head, he sees another tiny red thread tugging around his forefinger, trailing down across the floor and under the front door.

Without missing a beat, he launches himself off the couch, skidding across the floor to chase after the rest of it.

After the first few shaky steps he stops, stunned as it quickly begins disintegrate into the air around him until he’s untethered once again.

As he watches the small scarlet flecks fade into nothing around him, he collapases onto the floor next to a very annoyed looking poodle, trying to catch his breath at what had just happened. Gently tracing where the tie had been he blinks rapidly, desperately trying to catch his thoughts which were dissipating faster than the ghost of that thread.

It had been real.

He falls back onto the plush rug, unable to stifle the laugh bubbling over at the fact that  _he was right._  He had a soulmate. He had someone calling out to him as much as he had been desperately looking for them.

Staring up at the ceiling, the happiness fizzing inside him slowly starts to fade as a thousand questions suddenly start burning themselves into his mind.

Shakily sitting back up against the side of the couch, one thought shouts louder than the rest as he takes into account everything that had just happened.

Why now?

He breathes out, both elated and frustrated at the fact that while now he’s sure he has a soulmate, he isn’t really any closer to finding them.

He looks over to where the thread had previously slipped under the door.

“Well, they’re outside of this apartment, that’s a start,” he absentmindedly murmurs to Makkachin, now curiously nudging her nose against him. “Now I just have to try and follow that trail.”

He sighs and lifts himself to his feet. He’d spent years calling out to his soulmate over and over again on the ice with no hint of a thread. Maybe if he was going to get closer to finding his soulmate, he needed to do something different.

He looks back to the video now repeating on his phone.

_Drastically different._

\---

 

“Do you have a lover now?” Victor shifts across the bench Yuuri and him are currently sitting on, curiosity alight in his eyes.

“No?”

“What about ex-lovers?”

“N-no comment.” The Japanese skater starts to scoot back nervously from Victor’s enthusiasm.

“Well then let’s talk about me.” Victor leans forward excitedly, “Let’s see, my first lover-”

“Stop!”

He’s cut off by Yuuri’s scrambled plea, so closes his eager mouth and slumps down dejectedly.

He isn’t getting anywhere.

He’s been in Hasetsu for a few days at this point, yet is no closer to unravelling the enigma that is Katsuki Yuuri.

Even though they finally got some time to be alone together in front of the castle, trying to get information out of him was proving much trickier than first anticipated. 

Maybe he needs to be more direct.

“Do you think you have a soulmate?”

“What?” Yuuri seems taken aback by the sudden question, something akin to panic briefly flashing across his features.

“The red thread. Have you ever seen it?” He tries not to let his anticipation bleed through into his words. Victor may not have seen the thread since he’s arrived here, but he was desperate to know if Yuuri ever had.

Yuuri clears his throat nervously. “Uh... no. I haven’t.”

“Doesn’t mean you won’t.” He keeps his tone light. Playful. If they’re going to build some trust in this relationship, right now he needs any nugget of information he can grasp onto.

“I’m not sure if I believe in that really.”

“Oh?” He tries to hide the disappointment peppered in his voice.

Well that was one talking point out the window.

Yuuri suddenly pales. “I mean- oh gods I’m sorry, I mean I know you believe and of course someone like you probably does, I just-” He pauses, obviously trying to catch his messy train of thought. “I just don’t think that there’s someone out there so perfect for me that we’re tied together. I don’t really think fate works that way… for me at least.” He punctuates his last statement with an anxious laugh before quickly ducking his head towards his hands.

Victor takes in his nervous display and almost feels bad for bringing it up.

Almost.

He puts a little more space between them. “Yuuri, it’s fine if you don’t believe in soulmates. I just like to think there’s a little more magic in the world than we’re all lead to believe.” It’s the most honest answer he has, and one that hopefully won’t shut him down again.

Yuuri lifts his head to meet his eyes, his gaze a little more relaxed. “That’s a nice way to think about it.”

They sit in a much more comfortable silence for a few minutes, watching Makkachin happily bounce up and greet every tourist that wanders past.

“So, have you ever seen it?”

“Hmm?” Victor turns his head at the sudden question.

“The thread,” now Yuuri’s the one with curiosity flickering on his face, “do you think you’ve seen it?”

Victor smiles fondly at the memories. “Yes.”

“You have?” His expression is bright. It’s only now that Victor notices there’s a real warmth to the rich cinnamon of his eyes. Like an ember desperately ready to burst forth into a spectacular bonfire.

His smile stays soft. “Only a couple of times, but I definitely knew it was there.”

Yuuri nods slowly, before turning to look back out over the ocean. “It’s not surprising someone like you has a soulmate.”

He sees some kind of troubled thought flicker across Yuuri’s brow.

“It’s quite a recent development though,” he finds himself adding hastily. He doesn’t want the conversation to end quite yet, not when they’re  _finally_  talking properly. “I went so long without even a passing glance of it.”

“Really?” Yuuri turns back, the edge of a surprise lifting his words.

“I only started to see it in the last few months, so I think it was telling me to change up my routine a bit.”

The statement hangs in the air for a few long seconds.

“So… is that why you’re here?” Yuuri’s gaze doesn’t move from Victor’s face.

“Maybe.” He looks out to the sun, lazily starting to set in the sky. It’s the first time he’s really thought about it since he arrived here. “I think for a while I’ve known I needed to do something different. Maybe watching you skate and the tug of that thread was the final push.”

As he looks back to Yuuri, he swears he catches the blossoming of a pretty pink blush across his face before he abruptly stands up.

“We- we should probably get back,” he says before quickly striding over to Makkachin, wrestling her away from a group of extremely happy looking school children.

He can’t stop himself chuckling a little at Yuuri’s adorable awkwardness as he jogs over towards them. As Makkachin firmly stands her ground, now extremely reluctant to be pulled away from so much petting, Victor feels a thought settle warm and welcome in his mind.

_Oh I am going to enjoy it here._

\---

Winter melts into spring, then slowly fades into summer, and Victor can feel something inside him changing. He can’t quite put his finger on it, but he knows that since arriving in Hasetsu, there’s something decidedly different in the way his mind has been working.

As Victor scrolls through Twitter on his phone one warm evening, Yuuri shifts a little next to him on his bed, eyes glued to his phone as he rewatches his last free skate practice on repeat.

After Onsen on Ice (and A LOT of baths together), both of them had managed to fall into a casual ease around eachother. The night following his showdown with Yuri Plisetsky, Yuuri had been a stammering mess when he’d stood in Victor’s doorway, asking for more critiques on his form. Now when entering his room, Victor often finds him already sitting on the edge of his bed, working through some tiny error in his programme, his gaze hungry for a second opinion.

As Victor scrolls, he notices a bombardment of messages from people pointing him towards the same news story about the latest number of recorded soulmates. 

He sighs, ignoring the article and switching off his phone.

For the first time in his entire life, he’s pretty sure he’s been thinking enough about soulmates recently.

Placing his phone down on the bedside table he tries to push down the conflict that had been swimming in his mind for weeks now.

Yes, the whole point of him coming here was to chase that thread, but now- he glances down to Yuuri, now shifted so he’s leaning more comfortably against Victor’s shoulder, eyes sharp behind the thick frames of his glasses- now he finds himself with less motivation than ever.

As he regards Yuuri watching himself back on his phone and murmuring almost silent critiques, he knows that he can’t tear his eyes away from the way his lips quickly shape around the unfamiliar language, or enjoy the way that spark behind his eyes flares with determination every time he finds a way to improve.

As the video comes to an end, Victor gently takes the phone out of his hands, reaching over to plug it into the charger next to the bed. “You’ve been watching that recording for almost three hours now.” He gently pokes one of the darkened shadows starting to form under his eyes. “You need to sleep.”

Yuuri grumbles, pushing up his glasses to rub at the rawness behind them. “If I don’t see what’s wrong, I’m not going to get any better.” He leans over to take his phone back but Victor grabs his wrist before he can reach.

He sighs, annoyed as he yanks his hand back. “The Cup of China is next week.”

“Yes. And if you don’t sleep, you’re not exactly going to be on your a-game tomorrow are you?” Victor plucks his glasses from the bridge of his nose, placing them next to his phone. “Sleep. Coach’s orders.”

“Hey,” he murmurs, squinting angrily as Victor pulls back the sheets underneath him. “Why did you-”

“Stay here tonight.”

Yuuri’s eyes flash with surprise at the request. “What?”

“If you’re in here, I know you won’t be watching that video over and over until the early hours of tomorrow.”

He sees Yuuri visibly swallow. Victor knows it’s a flimsy excuse, he’s been trying to get Yuuri to stay with him ever since he’d arrived, yet Yuuri had never quite had the courage to take that step yet.

Yuuri looks nervously around the room for a few seconds. “I- I think I-”

He puts his hands on Yuuri’s shoulders, squeezing them reassuringly. “Please?”

He watches Yuuri release his bottom lip from where he’d started to worry it between his teeth, sighing and slowly lowering himself until he was lying properly on top of the mattress. “Okay.”

“Thank you,” Victor murmurs as he reaches over to turn off the lamp next to him and pull the sheet over them both. He’s used to sleeping naked, but he’d rather not scare Yuuri off right this second, not when they’re finally here, so the pants stay on.

As the room is enveloped in a soft darkness, he shifts onto his side. He can just about make out Yuuri’s silhouette now a good foot away from him, rigidly staring up at the ceiling.

He shifts a little closer, trying to ease some of the tension gripping the other man’s body.

“You don’t have to sleep here if you really don’t want to,” he whispers to the stiffness of Yuuri’s outline.

He sees him exhale slightly, moving the dark blur of his head towards him. “No, no I want to.” Yuuri also shifts onto his side, the glimmer of his eyes still just visible in the darkness. “Sorry, there’s just a lot to think about before next week.”

Victor nods before sidling up as close as he can without actually touching him. “I don’t bite,” he whispers into the hair of space between them, “well…hard.” He can’t help but tease him, it’s become one of Victor’s favourite past-times over the past few months.

Surprisingly, he hears Yuuri quietly chuckle as he buries himself a little further into the pillow. “I thought I was here because I’m supposed to be sleeping?”

It’s Victor’s turn to laugh now. “Damn, you’ve used my own logic against me, and I’m not one to argue with my own sage advice.”

Eventually their laughs quieten into soft breaths and Victor feels the last remaining tension from Yuuri’s frame bleed into the mattress as he slips into dreams, a small satisfied smile on his face.

Sleep evades Victor for a while after that.

Staring at the curtains, thoughts about his soulmate quest buzz louder and more angrily than a swarm in his mind, souring the otherwise pleasant mood he’s been in for days .

Every passing hour it makes him angrier.

Being here he’s felt more alive than he had for season after season on the ice and he knows it isn’t because of the change of scenery.

For years he tried to call out to someone who mainly existed in a fantasy, but all it did was make him feel more hollow each time he failed.

He looks back over to Yuuri, peaceful and sweet in sleep.

_Now he knows he has someone very real filling that hole left by an invisible thread for years._

Over the past few weeks, he couldn’t stop himself absentmindedly rubbing the spot where he’d felt the thread those months ago while watching Yuuri practice.

Soft Yuuri. Determined Yuuri.

Yuuri who he knows he doesn’t want to be apart from.

He can feel a familiar warmth beginning to unfurl deep in his gut at the thought. 

Yuuri… who isn’t his soulmate.

He digs his nails into his palms.

He’s been around him for months now without one pull from a red thread- and he  _hates_ it. Hates that it hurts just a little bit more every time he thinks about it. Hates how confused this makes him feel.

But he is perfectly certain on one thing.

He props up on one shoulder, desperately fighting the urge to trace the shape of that soft sleepy smile currently painting Yuuri’s lovely face.  

He’s knows when he’s falling for someone. Hard.

As he shifts away, wrestling with the mess of thought inside his head, he feels Yuuri unconsciously protest at the lack of warmth, rolling over and curling himself against his side, his hand resting against Victor’s lower stomach.

His heart jumps higher than any quad flip at the proximity.

Part of him wants to push him off, put Makkachin between them and desperately try to push down the feelings brewing loud and hot in his heart so they can both avoid getting hurt later. As he puts his hand over Yuuri’s to move it, a much louder part of him rejects the thought outright, knowing full-well that the idea of Yuuri being with anyone else made his heart hurt worse than years of not seeing that stupid thread.

He bites down on his lip, desperately trying not to jerk at the frustration in his mind and disturb the sleeping Yuuri.

_Why isn’t he my soulmate then!?_

As he shakily breathes out, another thought that had been sitting at the back of his mind for a while, floats back to the surface, taunting him with its simplicity.

_Maybe it doesn’t matter if he’s not._

Victor knows that Yuuri admires him, that they like being with each other, but he’s also already told him that he has a soulmate. Could Yuuri ever really be okay knowing that fate has already tied him to someone else?

Victor runs a hand down his face before reaching out to gently place it against Yuuri’s back. His heart melts a little as Yuuri unconsciously hums at the touch, moving more fully on top of him.

He sighs, relaxing under the new weight and closing his eyes.

Right now,  _this_ was all that mattered. He knows he has to pick a path to walk, but right now he has to put Yuuri’s skating first.

As he finally falls asleep, one final thought stays in his mind before dissolving into unconsciousness.

_I won’t let him go._

\---

It’s after Yuuri collapses onto the ice after a near-perfect quad flip that he makes up his mind.

Charging around the side of the rink as he finishes, his resolve burns crisp and clear in his mind.

_I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care what that thread says._

He’s running on pure frantic instinct as Yuuri desperately skates towards him, launching himself onto the ice just so he doesn’t have to wait another second before finally  _finally_ being able to kiss him.

It’s a brief press of lips, but he feels the soft contact burn all the way down to his toes before they both come crashing down onto the ice.

Taking a second to relish in the feel of just holding him, even if it is on an ice rink, he desperately tries to think of the right thing to say, to keep this moment perfect.

Pulling back and seeing the rosy blush blooming across Yuuri’s features, he can feel it already spilling easy and honest from his lips.

“That’s the only thing I could think of to surprise you more than you’ve surprised me.” 

Yuuri’s eyes soften, the surprise on his face morphing into the most beautiful smile he’s ever seen.

“Really?”

Victor opens his mouth to spill his praise, but words get stuck in his throat at the flutter in the corner of his eye.

He can see it. Clear as day. A solitary piece of reddened thread wound around his wrist.

As he pulls back from Yuuri in shock he sees it snake from his own arm and gently twist its way up Yuuri’s own sparkling sleeve.

For a minute he forgets to breathe.

“Yuuri, oh my god, Yuuri!” He pants out his glee, his grasp on English tenuous as a joy stronger than he’s ever felt explodes through his mind.

“Victor?” The sudden outburst has Yuuri widening his eyes a little in surprise.

He grabs Yuuri’s hand from the ice to press another quick kiss to his palm, staring at the thread gently swaying with his movement.

It was there. It was  _real._

“It’s you- I just, I can’t believe- it’s happened.” His eyes flick like an erratic metronome from the tie on Yuuri’s wrist to his face.

Yuuri smiles warmly again. “I know.”

“Oh Yuuri.” He feels himself floating higher than the lights of the stadium as he reaches down to pull Yuuri up into a desperate hug.

As they part, Yuuri’s gentle expression doesn’t change. “It wasn’t the best execution of that jump but I was so sure I could do it.”

His answer catches Victor off guard.

“What?” His breathing is still erratic and excited, his mind spinning with the sudden torrent of feeling.

“The quad flip.” Yuuri looks past the thread to Victor’s face, the blush brightened across the bridge of his nose slowly dissipating. “It’s your jump I know, but I’m sure I can get it down next time.”

Victor moves their joined hands again, the thread waving directly in Yuuri’s line of sight.

His expression doesn’t change, his eyes still half-lidded and soft.

“Yuuri, wait- you don’t...” Victor trails off, feeling the grin previously plastered on his expression being snatched away by a trickle of cold realisation.

“Victor?” Yuuri suddenly pushes them a little further apart, shifting from where their bodies were pressed so warmly together. “Are you okay?”

He sees a streak of worry break through Yuuri’s expression.

“Yeah- I mean, of course I am- look!” He shakes their joined hands with a little more vigour, making the thread shake as much as he can.

“Yeah,” Yuuri smiles softly, “we did it.”

He feels all his joy suddenly turn to ash in his mouth. Slowly letting go of Yuuri’s hand, he watches the thread twist with his movement as they part.

“Uh Victor?” He suddenly jerks his head back to look at Yuuri, a ghost of confusion etched across his face. “Could we maybe get off the ice now? I’m getting kind of damp over here.”

“Yes- yes of course.” In a daze, he helps Yuuri to his feet, the emotional whiplash stinging in his mind.

Victor watches after Yuuri as he moves in front of him, the beginnings of real angry tears starting to swell behind his eyes.

_He can’t see it._

The confirmation feels like a knife slowly twisting in his stomach.

As Yuuri gets further away, he looks down and watches thread slowly disintegrate once again, each flicker of scarlet string dying along with the happiness that had been swirling in his heart.

 

\---

 

The initial panic at the revelation starts to wane slightly when they make it back to the hotel room, silver shining proudly around Yuuri’s neck.

During the entirety of the medal ceremony he could barely concentrate, questions about what the hell was happening screaming way too loud in his ears.

Soulmates were uncommon, but in every interview he’d tracked down they’d always gone on about the magic moment of both people seeing the thread for the first time.

He’d never come across anything about only one person being able to see it.

Despite all that, when he saw Yuuri take his medal and turn directly to him to smile, he could feel a flash of want spreading quick and warm through his body, dispelling some of the sad confusion thick in his brain.

Yuuri might not be able to see the thread, but Victor knows his feelings haven’t changed.

They’re still right here, together.

_Isn’t that all that matters?_

As he watches Yuuri walk over to the bed, he notices a few more hairs falling lose from his carefully styled hold and messily framing the softness of his eyes.

It’s beautiful.

He walks over to gently tuck the errant stands away from Yuuri’s face, unable to stop himself as he lingers a little, slowly caressing the shape of his ear with his thumb. Yuuri closes his eyes, sighing a little into the small intimacy of the touch.

“You were amazing today,” Victor whispers as he greedily lets his fingers trace the shape of his jaw. “I don’t think I’ve ever had someone surprise me that much on the ice.”

He continues his slow exploration, mapping a soft path of skin as he lightly drags the pads of his fingers down the length of Yuuri’s neck, pausing to curve his hands around his shoulders.

He sees the heat rise in Yuuri’s cheeks.

“That’s what I was aiming for,” he murmurs gently

Victor chuckles. He wonders how much further he can fall for this man in just one evening.

He deliberately lets his gaze drop to Yuuri’s lips, then back up to his eyes, watching the realisation of his intent wash over him before starting to slowly bring their faces together.

Yuuri might not see the thread, but Victor still wants this more than anything.

 

 “Wait!”

Victor flinches at the yelp, the warmth of Yuuri’s body suddenly gone.

He looks up and sees Yuuri staggering back to put a good few feet of space between them, his breathing harsh.

“Yuuri?” He takes a tentative step forward, trying not to let the hurt seep onto his features when Yuuri matches him, taking a step back.

Yuuri closes his eyes for a few seconds, the pucker in his brow deepening before he slowly breathes out and regards Victor again.

“We can’t.”

The words are barely above a breath, but they still hit hard when Victor hears them.

“Why?”

Yuuri bites his lip, nervously kneading his fingers together. “Well… your soulmate?”

The words feel like a stab right between the ribs coming from Yuuri.

“Yuuri-” he tries to find the right words, but he doesn’t even know where to think of beginning.

“I want to- God you don’t know how much a want to.” Yuuri’s voice is a little firmer, but the anguish on his face is evident. “But I can’t. Not when we both know there’s someone else.”

All of the frustrations of twenty years suddenly burn loud and painful in Victor’s mind.

He opens his mouth to try and explain but he just doesn’t have the words. The thread was gone and even when it had been there Yuuri hadn’t seen it. 

He almost wants to scream.

Victor wants to tell him everything, tell him exactly what he saw but the fact that there was no way to prove it has Victor biting his tongue. 

Yuuri’s expression starts to break, each second without a response dragging by long and dry.

”Yuuri- I...” His voice catches again. He knows that if he tells him the truth, Yuuri probably won’t think he’s lying, that there is the possibility that they just might be able to work this out together.

It’s the other possibility that has Victor silencing himself.

After the pain of watching his break down in the parking lot earlier, he just  _can’t_  cause Yuuri anymore mental strain then he already has. He knows Yuuri. Knows he’s strong and talented and wonderful... but now he also has a much better understanding of how his mind works.

If Yuuri believes that it’s there but can’t see it, he knows a thousand worst-case scenarios will play through his mind and that it will only weigh sour and heavy in his thoughts. For so long he knew Yuuri didn’t think he deserved to have Victor here coaching him no matter how evident he made it that he loved doing it.

He doesn’t even know how much this revelation could eat away at him, how much the fact that he can’t see the thread could hurt him.

It won’t matter that he loved him before.

He straightens himself and takes a few slow steps towards Yuuri, a small relief unfurling inside when he doesn’t move away.

If he was going to do this he had to find a way for there to be be no doubts.

He stops within arms reach, his voice confident and clear when he speaks. 

“I don’t care.”

Yuuri cocks his head a little in confusion. “What?”

“I said I don’t care.” He closes the rest of the gap between them, reaching out to gently cup the softness of Yuuri’s cheeks between his palms. “I want  _you.”_

He can almost see the conflict swimming in Yuuri’s eyes, dancing like troubled waters over the smooth of the onsen’s stones. “That could change.”

“And the world could end tomorrow,” he murmurs, keeping his voice silky and sincere.

“Victor?” His answer has definitely caught him off guard.

He sighs, moving his arms to take hold of Yuuri’s hands, picking his words carefully. “Yuuri- I think I’m done living by ‘what-ifs.’” He gently runs his thumb across the back of Yuuri’s hand soothingly. “I know what I feel right now and it’s something I don’t think I’ve ever felt before.”

Yuuri doesn’t flinch away from his words and Victor feels a small warmth spreading inside him when he softly squeezes his fingers.

”I’ve spent so long being confused, but now I know that I can’t let this go. Let  _you_  go.”

He hates that it tastes like lie on his tongue, especially when it’s so  _close_ to the truth. He’d already made his mind up about how he felt.

Maybe that’s why the thread appeared so strongly this time.

“Victor.” Yuuri takes another steadying breath, lines of unease still a little visible, etched around his eyes. “Of course I don’t want to let this go, I mean... you’re  _you_.” His gaze flickers to the ground. “I’ve never been able to take my eyes off you, not since I was twelve.”

Victor can’t stop a small laugh escaping him at the sweet confession. Sometimes he forgets just how much of a fan Yuuri had been before they met. “And you’re  _you_  Katsuki Yuuri.” He moves a little closer. “Don’t ever forget that.”

Yuuri slowly flicks his eyes back up, regarding Victor properly. “Are you really sure?”

Victor’s smile softens a little more. Of course Yuuri would still need confirmation, even after everything he’s just said.

He can’t even imagine the conversation they’d be having if Victor had told him the truth, how much convincing he’d need then that, yes, he was definitely the one he wanted even if he couldn’t see it.

He reaches up to gently grasp Yuuri’s chin between his fingers, tilting his face up but still leaving a warm breath of space between them. “More sure than I’ve ever been.”

He watches his words slowly wash over Yuuri, anticipation searing in his mind as he waits for his reponse.

Yuuri doesn’t move away. 

Victor sees the beautiful burn of brown in his eyes be almost completely engulfed in black as he wraps his arms around Victor’s waist, whispering softly but clearly as he lets the final space between them vanish.

“ _Okay then.”_

This time when they kiss, Victor can indulge a little, properly learn the soft shape and sweet sensation of his mouth as their lips move together. He hopes Yuuri can taste the joy bursting on his tongue as he opens his mouth, sliding an arm up Yuuri’s back at the same time so he can pull him impossibly closer.

Victor knows how to enrapture an audience, keep them feeling desperate and hungry for more when he moves on the ice, how to use his body expertly. Yet here with Yuuri, he almost feels like a fumbling teenager fooling around with someone for the first time, each action clumsier with raw desire.

He knows Yuuri is at least inexperienced when it comes to relationships, but he’s seen the seduction that practically drips from his lithe form when skating Eros.

And now he can finally feel it against his touch.

Victor can’t stop the frankly embarrassing noise that escapes him as Yuuri breaks away with a smirk, his lips pink and swollen and lovely, before surging forward to pepper firm hot kisses down his neck.

“ _Yuuri_.” Victor closes his eyes, focussing on the sparks of heat bursting under his skin at each soft stroke of Yuuri’s lips. He lets every other niggling thought melt from his mind as he slips his hand underneath Yuuri’s shirt to gently caress the firm muscle underneath.

He gasps out again at the first scrape of Yuuri’s teeth against his throat, wondering for a brief moment where hell he’d been hiding this kind of skill for so many months as he feels the action registering sharp and clear in his groin.

Oh he can’t wait any longer

He grabs Yuuri’s face between his hands, pulling his head back so he can look at him properly.”I want you.”

They’re the most honest words he’s given all evening but he needs to know they’re on the same page, at least about this.

He sees Yuuri’s eyes widen for a second, before he smiles, reaching out to gently touch the spot he’d been mouthing so intently, no doubt a lovely bruise blossoming against the pale column of his neck. “I want you too. More than anything.”

No sooner are the words out of Yuuri’s mouth then Victor is covering it with his own again, lust fuelling his actions as he pulls them both down onto the bed, finally letting himself touch and taste all the miles of skin he’s been thinking about for so long.

\----

After, they lay tangled together sweaty and sated in a mess of bedsheets, Victor idly tracing the soft curve of Yuuri’s bare hip while the other man dozes, his head pillowed against Victor’s chest.

As he twines their fingers together, he revels in the fact his mind is for once blissfully blank, every muscle in his body relaxed and light.

As he shifts to wake Yuuri up and suggest they get some dinner, his words are snatched away for the second time that day.

The thread is back, thick and bright, looped clearly around both of their wrists.

A thousand feelings start to brew unpleasant and thick in his chest, but one thought churns the loudest in his mind.

“Yuuri?” He whispers.

He opens his eyes, his expression muted and sleepy. As he looks up, Victor deliberately moves so the string waves in his line of sight.

Yuuri doesn’t flinch.

“Mmmm?” he mumbles, rolling more firmly on top of him, resting his head on his own folded arms.

“I- Yuuri, I-” he bites his tongue. He wants to tell him, wants everything to be out in the open, but he just can’t spoil the mood right now. Not when they’re both so relaxed for once.

“I think we need to shower,” he eventually settles on, hoping he can hide the disappointment flooding through his mind.

Yuuri smiles, before leaning down to place a soft kiss to Victor’s chest, his heart aching a little at the sweet gesture. “That sounds like a great idea.”

 

—-

As Victor holds Yuuri gently from behind in their bed later that night, he tries to let the soft feel of his bare skin distract him from the storm that felt like it was brewing in his belly.

Even in the dark he can still see the thread tied around his wrist, appearing again after another round of desperate love making on top of the sheets.

At this point he wants to burn it off.

The world told Victor he was special and maybe he really is. Special enough to be the only person in history to have a one-sided soul thread.

After hours of buzzing thoughts and secret frustrated googling on his phone, he’d come to two possible conclusions.

The first option was that he was just crazy. That he’d wanted Yuuri to be his soulmate so badly that he was just imagining the thread suddenly tying the two of them together. That his mind was just taking the easy way out so he can finally be free of the frustrating tangle of that red string.

He wrinkles his nose at the implication, but- he lifts his head to look over at the sleeping Yuuri- he almost  _wants_  that one to be the case.

Especially when considering the second option.

He leans over to press his lips to the slope of Yuuri’s shoulder, trying to push the thought away.

_Maybe he really is Yuuri’s soulmate, but Yuuri isn’t his._

His hands reflexively tighten around Yuuri.

Victor knows could spend the rest of the night hung up on painful hypotheticals, but there is something else that he is absolutely sure of.

Yuuri has to see the thread on his own.

It feels like lying, feels like he’s deceiving one of the only people he truly cares about but each time Victor thinks about waking him up to tell him, one line of reasoning keeps his mouth closed.

If it took him this long to finally see it, maybe Yuuri just needs some more time before he can as well.

It’s the only hope he still has at this point.

Victor knows he isn’t a man to easily give up, so for now he’s going to do everything he can to prove that they’re meant to be together. With how much he’s wanted this recently, he at least knows he doesn’t need any inspiration about that.

Pulling the other man closer, he lets himself slip into sleep, dreaming of Yuuri running towards him with his arms outstretched and the red string wrapped around his wrist reflected clear as day in the shine of his eyes.

 

**Author's Note:**

> People reeeeaaally wanted more of this universe so here we are. :P 
> 
> I'm also working on a sequel/ second chapter of the original work as I'm not used to ending things angsty. These boys deserve to be happy.
> 
> Come say hi to me on [Tumblr](https://ravensmores.tumblr.com/) \- @ravensmores


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